High Temperature: 80

Low Temperature: 54

Barometric Pressure: 30.15

Relative Humidity 7AM: 74%

9 AM Temperature: 59

Moisture: 0"

Route: Cherokee Lake to Sawbill Lake

Cherokee Lake

Cherokee Creek

Portage 180 rods

Skoop Lake

Portage 90 rods

Ada Lake

Portage 80 rods

Ada Creek

Portage 60 rods

Sawbill Lake

Up at 6:30 to a cool, drippy, foggy morning. I don’t know what’s worse, the rain or the mess it makes. Not only was our stuff wet but dirty as well from the mud and spatter.

Before we left, I replaced the cedar sprig and rock on the fire grate to welcome the next guests. We were on the on the water by 9:00 and to Cherokee Creek by 9:30. A pine martin greeted us almost immediately. He posed for a picture for Jim on a branch overhanging the water. The weather turned nice and the paddle was beautiful. I love paddling these creeks. The portages are pretty tough.

I had been telling Jim about the fun paddle along Ada Creek – very narrow and windy, barely deep enough for a canoe. It would be right after the 12- rod portage out of Skoop Lake – well my 15-year-old Fisher Map says 12-rods. My 15-year-old McKenzie says 10-rods. However, Jim’s map, the one he just bought at Sawbill Outfitters, says the portage is 90 rods. Jim’s is right. A beaver built a dam at Skoop cutting off the water to the creek. That beautiful little paddle is now gone and has been replace by a rock-hopping, ankle-busting, too long of a portage.

We crossed Ada Lake, did the portage, and were drifting down Ada Creek when we heard … noise… around the corner. It was a big bull moose feeding in the creek. The noise was the water coming off his antlers when he brought his head up from under water with a mouth full of moose food. Think of two 5-gallon buckets of water being dumped into the creek from 8 feet in the air every 20 seconds. That’s the sound. We watched him for perhaps 30 minutes.

Moose (he’s hard to see but he is there and much closer than this picture seems)

We made it to Sawbill at 3:00 and to our campsite at 3:30.

Sawbill Campsite

Chili tonight with corn bread I made in the reflector over. The cornbread is my first contribution to food preparation for the trip. I think I’ll start calling Jim “Cookie”. Either that or “Froggy” because he has been conversing with bull frogs the entire trip. He’s got the sound down perfectly.

It was a nice evening - a great, red sunset. “Red sun at night, Sailors’ delight…” I went to bed shortly after dark, about 10:30. This time of year it stays light so late!

Sawbill Sunset